Hamilton, Alexander
Hamilton, Alexander (1755–1804), Revolutionary soldier and statesman.Born in Nevis, Hamilton migrated to New York in 1772, where he studied at King's College until lured into the Revolutionary War. Hamilton caught Gen. George Washington's eye, and in 1777 became his aide‐de‐camp. In 1781, Hamilton led an infantry regiment to victory against a British redoubt at the Battle of Yorktown.
Hamilton's wartime experiences convinced him that only a strong central government led by a natural aristocracy could preserve American liberty. In 1782, he entered the Confederation Congress, a body he worked to invigorate; Hamilton's Annapolis Convention report (1786) summoned the 1787 Constitutional Convention. At the Philadelphia meeting, he pushed a powerful national government; thereafter he wrote fifty‐one of the celebrated Federalist Papers.
As the first...
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